A Sunni gunman fires during clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime forces in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, on Wednesday. / Hussein Malla, AP

by Mona Alami
Special for USA TODAY, USA TODAY

by Mona Alami
Special for USA TODAY, USA TODAY

BEIRUT - The civil war in Syria spilled into northern Lebanon on Wednesday, where gunmen loyal to opposing sides went at each other for a third straight day.

Seven Lebanese have been killed and 57 others wounded since the violence began Monday, Sheik Bilal Dokmak said in Tripoli.

Lebanon is home to several Muslim sects and Christians, as is Syria, where Sunni Muslims have risen up against the regime of Bashar Assad, who has the backing of Christians and Alawite Muslims, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

In Tripoli, Sunnis who support the uprising in Syria have battled Alawites in the Jabal Mohsen section of the city. The violence erupted when news spread that a group of Tripoli Sunnis were killed trying to get to the fight in Syria.

Abdel Latif Saleh, spokesperson for the Arab Democratic party, representing the Alawite community, said the situation in Tripoli was spiraling out of control.

"We are being targeted by armed men," he said. "The Lebanese army is attempting to calm the situation, but it's bad."

He said the gunmen coordinated with members of the Free Syrian Army to attack the Alawites. Dokmak warned that things could get worse.

"If Assad falls, Tripoli people will take retaliatory measures against some of Alawites who support the Assad regime," he said.

The Lebanese army moved throughout the city to stop the fighting. Soldiers patrolled the streets in armored personnel carriers. Authorities closed major roads because of sniper fire.

In Syria, Assad's army blasted neighborhoods about 6 miles outside the capital of Damascus using fighter jets and rockets, said Syrian activist Ahmad al Maadamani.

"The Syrian army has been unable to secure the road leading to the Damascus national airport," he said from Damascus.

Rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army have kept up offensive operations in an attempt to shut down the airport, which Assad uses as a base for aircraft that pummel rebel positions from the air, killing scores of civilians.

About 40,000 civilians have died since the uprising began in March 2011, according to estimates of activists and the United Nations.

In Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated concerns that "an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons" or lose control of them to militant groups.

She said NATO's decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey's southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies. The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said.

Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was quoted Wednesday in the Turkish newspaper Sabah as saying Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them long-range.

"At this very moment, we know where those missiles are, how they are being stored, whose hands they are in," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon urged Syria's regime against using its stockpile of chemical weapons, warning of "huge consequences" if Assad resorts to such weapons of mass destruction.